Enough?
by Everlasting Flower
Summary: What will the Avengers be when they are old and gone? Eva is a glimpse into that future, but full of heroic and villainous twists of her own.
1. Chapter 1

She sat staring at the desktop and willing it follow her commands. Instead she found her fingers flying over the keyboard, typing with a grace and speed that came effortless to her. The equations worked themselves out as she drummed out their reasoning to the soft tapping. The dull fluorescent light above her flickered again, threatening to go and she sighed, leaning back, tilting her chair till it almost tipped.

"Another Nobel?"

A thin looking boy who looked almost, only almost, 19 stood behind her, two coffee cups in hand and an oversized book bag in tow. He took up residence in the chair next to her, hitting his keyboard to wake his computer to life and handing her the coffee.

"Professor Davin sucks."

The boy nodded as he extracted his books and turned toward her.

"That's what you get for questioning his theory in the middle of class. He got his PHD with that equation. You have proof it's wrong, don't you?"

"I have expulsion written all over this screen."

She frowned and turned the monitor toward her neighbor. He scanned the document she had written up, grabbing for a calculator to check some of the math and then whistled.

"Damn...you can't be thinking of turning that in?"

"Naw."

She pulled up a new sheet and set to work. Her companion turned to his own collection of tasks and they worked silently. Five minutes later the printer screeched awake and pushed two sheets from it's belly. She stood and swiftly grabbed the sheets, pulling her jacket on with her movements.

"You at least printed the truth right? Even if your handing in the half-truth?"

"You know me too well. We need to stop these late night dates."

"Sessions. Geez, as if I'd date you! The poor fellow who dares will go mad from always being proven wrong."

"Well tomorrow Professor Davin need not worry. My so-called 'half-truths' should be enough for him to correct his own logic."

She headed for the door and was just about out when he called.

"Eva, you know you can take the credit sometimes. You won't always be the fifteen year old who solved your mom's equation and couldn't get credit because she was too young."

She looked back at him, pain written on her features.

"She died today."

With that she disappeared into the blackness of the early AM.


	2. Chapter 2

The coffee pot beeped and a slender hand reached out to grab it. Pouring the steaming liquid into a solid white mug the hand's owner hummed and then slid the mug across the counter. Pouring a second cup the red-head pitched a note higher and turned toward the stove. Beyond the sound of sizzling bacon a man spoke in monotone speeches, conveying the news of the day.

Tony Stark stumbled out of his room and groggily came over to the cup now perched on the edge of the kitchen counter.

"Aw, Pepper where's the sugar?"

"Make your own coffee then."

Tony grumbled as he crossed past Pepper, stopping to eye the food that was crisping. Sugar secured he swiped his mug of joe and headed for the living room couch. The TV was low and he inched the noise up.

"...and the President will make his speech tomorrow at noon. In other news, Nobel prize winner, Helen Crew, passed away yesterday from late stage cancer. A wiz with numbers and analytics she is best remembered for her work in increasing the Navy's ship-board weapons capacity and most recently was researching the effects of the New York incident on the world's oceans with respect to maritime activity. She is survived by-"

"Wasn't that the girl you said beat you by a point for highest GPA at MIT."

Pepper stood over Tony's shoulder eyes on the screen. A picture of the deceased women flashed on the screen, her Nobel medal in hand.

"Wow she was pretty."

Tony's mind drifted back to his last semester at MIT. She had been in his Tuesday seminars and had been even prettier then. He remembered studying her thighs and other assorted curves more seriously then whatever nonsense the professor had been going on about. She had rejected every offer of a date until-

"Such a shame for a brilliant mind to be lost."

Pepper knocked his head hard.

"Cancer you can't avoid. Playing at being a superhero, that you can."

Tony could hear the clip in her voice as she turned on her heel and strode back to the kitchen. He could already tell he was in trouble with the boss of his house and he hadn't even done anything yet today...


End file.
